He dialled 911!

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-25-2003
He dialled 911!
6
Tue, 03-07-2006 - 9:26am

DH allowed Siobhan to play with an old defunct cellphone over the weekend. She was taking pictures with it. (cameras are her obsession)

Well, unbeknownst to anyone, Peter decided to take that phone into school. The teacher spotted it, and placed it in his backpack. No worries.

Later; at the aftercare place, Peter was trying to use the phone to call his friend, couldn't get through and decided to seek help.

"Where do you go for help?"
"You dial 911."

There is a NYS law that allows all cellphones access to 911 -contract or none, so the daycare lady realised that Peter was really *talking* to somebody, took the phone and figured it out (and got an earful from the 911 operator for her trouble!)

The problem is this: Now Peter thinks he did something very wrong by calling 911, and is afraid he will get arrested. I did call my neighbor, an NYC cop to ask him to speak to Peter and tell him it was an accident and OK, (Peter won't believe *me*, but he will believe M), but I think M's shifts are working against us, timewise.

Does anybody have any ideas for how I can:

a) reduce his fear of being arrested?
b) convince him that there are times when calling 911 is appropriate, as now he thinks that it is BAD. period.

-Paula

-Paula

visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-26-2005
Tue, 03-07-2006 - 2:37pm
Paula,
The very same thing happened me last week with Jake. I gave him my old cell because I had just got a new one. In a million years I never thought he'd dial 911 and to be honest it was just a fluke thing because he dosen't know what 911 is for. Seriously, what are the chances?I don't have any advice but I just thiught that was funny the same thing happening to us so recently.
Teresa
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 03-07-2006 - 6:55pm

((Paula))

I think you have done what you can. Does he keep bringing it up? If so I would just gently remind him that he will not be arrested. Even the police officer has said so. If that doesn't work, perhaps a social story. Maybe he needs it visually and is still not comprehending all the info.

On the "sometimes it is appropriate to call 911" stuff, I wouldn't stress over that for now. He may not be ready to really comprehend that or when it is appropriate to call them. You will likely need to do a social story for that with very specific examples. For instance, more of a situational social story for what to do in case of fire etc. Or one social story of it is ok to call 911 if..... But for now I would just perhaps again gently remind him when he says something that "Peter, sometimes it is important to call 911 if it is a real emergency"

I would caution social stories and really full blown teaching about 911 for the time being for a couple reasons. First, it may freak him out if he is not ready to understand that info but starts getting the "call 911 if there is a fire, robbery, etc." If he is anythign like Mike (which we know he is in many things) he will stress over whether those events are going to happen and send anxiety through the roof. And second, if you give him all the situations about when to call 911 but not all the directions with it you could end up with a situation where there is a fire and he doesn't leave because he has to call 911 (concrete thinkers that they are).

On a rare occurance some young 5yo child calls 911 when Mommy is really sick and it makes the national news, but I think for the most part kids don't do that. I think this is one of those situations where we have to understand where our kids are at developmentally and realize that they may not be ready to understand the complexities of some of that kind of stuff. The rare child may call at 5. More kids are likely to really understand about 7 or so I would guess. But I know developmentally in many ways Mike is 4 and in some ways he is more concrete in his understanding than a 4yo. I don't know any 4yos that will successfully understand the whole 911 thing unless they are incredibly gifted and above thier age level developmentally which is what I guess would be the case with those savior 5yo's. Otherwise it wouldn't be a big story when they do it. Is that totally confusing or what?

So basically, point being I would just assure him when he brings it up that the police aren't coming. He is ok. I don't really know how I'd go about the calling 911 as bad thing. No matter how I try to word that calling 911 sometimes isn't bad I forsee setting up his calling again in the future. Unless he is bringing it up alot I wouldn't bring it up. And if he did I might say to let the adults call 911 or ask an adult first.

Renee

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 03-08-2006 - 11:53am

((((hugs))))

I think Renee covered it! I have no advice. I just hope it blows over quickly!

Betsy

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-19-2005
Wed, 03-08-2006 - 12:37pm

Paula,

Just sending more hugs. It sounds like you are having a hard week. I don't have any advice either, but Renee did and I also liked your idea of having your friend come and talk to him. I can totally see my son doing something like this in the future. He takes things so literally too. Hang in there!

Katherine

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-20-2001
Wed, 03-08-2006 - 1:37pm
You know it is weird hwo often 911 is accidentally called.

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 06-25-2003
Wed, 03-08-2006 - 9:23pm

Renee,

We had had The Chat before I read your post, but you and I think alot alike. I told him that M. had called after he fell asleep and had siad that he wasn't in trouble but he would need to learn more about when to dial 911, and the times when that is not the best course of action. This seemed to appease Peter -he would not have been OK to get off scott free.

The we went over some scenarios -very generic ones, -not specific to us or our house: Things like what if we see a car accident, or if a child fell into a pond, if Mommy loses her car keys or if a kitten was stuck in a tree. (you are right of course that mentioning the possibility of a robbery or fire here would totally freak him out -Mom's cooking notwithstanding). Siobhan nailed them all, of course. I will give him a break and then work on it some more later.

He seemed OK, but had a big acting out session in his afterschool program today. I suspect this is not unrelated. With him, stress seems to manifest after the fact.

Oh well. He seems to have gotten over the thought that he might be arrested, at least. it was a good idea to have M "call".

Thanks for the good ideas.

-Paula

-Paula

visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com